Haven Hill: Chapter 2

By the author of The Widow in the Woods

If you haven’t read Chapter 1 yet, you can find it here.

Inside, the cabin looked like it always had, and gave them a feeling of permanence and safety. Sheets covered the upholstered furniture to keep the dust off. It smelled musty after being closed for such a long time, so Kate and Ariel immediately began opening windows to get a breeze.

Kate stepped onto the back lean-to utility porch to turn on the power at the breaker. She was lucky – the previous owner had put municipal power in place so it was an expense she didn’t require, and doggone it, end of the world or not, she was a huge fan of electricity.

She walked back in, flipping switches for the ceiling fans along the way. She’d found 4 of those palm leaf looking ceiling fans at Habitat for Humanity and grabbed them right immediately to add both coolness and character to the cabin.

The walls had been whitewashed and the late afternoon sun shone through the windows in the main room, which held a living room, dining room, library, and kitchen. She inhaled deeply the smell of old books, the volumes lining an entire wall of the room, only broken up by sindows. She loved her books, from the collection of old herbal texts to the newer, brightly photograghed plant identification books. There was also lots of fiction, since there was no phone service and no television out here. Ariel and Kate were both voracious readers and loved to sit in front of a cozy fire and read, bundled up in the hodgepodge of colorful afghans tossed carelessly over the furniture.

Ariel flopped down on the secondhand lavender sofa, its old springs groaning in protest.

“Home, sweet home!” crowed the teenager, smiling from ear to ear.

“Let’s get everything inside before it gets dark, and make some dinner,” Kate said in a tone that implied this was not just a mere suggestion.

They brought in the cooler, groceries, overnight bags, and other goods they’d packed precariously into the yellow jeep. While Ariel put the refrigerated items in the funky yellow vintage fridge that had come with the place, Kate, put the soft top back on the Jeep, just in case it rained.

“Campfire dinner?” Ariel asked, batting her lashes dramatically and folding her hands in a manner to indicate pleading.

Kate laughed and agreed, and soon they had assembled the makings of a tasty dinner. Tonight’s food would be simpler because they were both starving after the long drive. Hot dogs and Smores would be cooked over the fire, with a side of coleslaw Kate had brought from home to get a veggie in there. She put two hot dogs on each paper plate, added ketchup and mustard to the hot dog buns awaiting their filling, and carried the slaw outside. Ariel had the marshmallows, chocolate, peanut butter, and graham crackers and was practically salivating.

“You build the fire,” Kate ordered. She wanted to be sure that Ariel kept up her skills.

The girl stacked the wood into a little teepee in the firepit and expertly lit a piece of newspaper to stuff underneath to get things going. Within a matter of minutes, a fire was going, and Kate added more wood.

The air was getting cooler as the sun continued to set in the distance. Ariel went inside and grabbed a couple of hoodies so they could hang out in comfort.

They poked the tines of long roasting forks through their hot dogs. Kate patted her lower right abdomen, where her faithful Glock rested in a holster. Who knew what the smell of cooking food would draw?

Four stumps made stools around the firepit, and each of them claimed a stump for cooking their weenies to the desired level of crispness. By the time everything was set up and their first course was ready, the sun had dipped below the horizon and a dusky purple light came from behind the trees in the west.

They relocated to their more comfortable chairs a bit further back from the fire and ate their dinner without talking. They were introverts and were perfectly happy to hang out in silence. The only sounds were the noises of the forest around them and the crackling fire.

Kate felt the rest of the tension leaving her body as she bit into her almost-but-not-quite-burned hotdog in the soft, mustard-lined bun. She leaned back in her chair, chewing, and looked at her daughter, who was cramming food in her mouth like it was her last meal. Oh, to have the metabolism of a 14-year-old, Kate thought.

Their immediate hunger sated, they paused to digest their dinner before making dessert.

“I love it here, Mom,” said Ariel. “I always feel safe, like nothing bad can happen at Haven Hill.”

Kate smiled and nodded, but she cringed inwardly. Bad things could happen anywhere, as they both well knew. But there was no sense in scaring her daughter, who was finally beginning to find some peace.

“Anywhere can be safe if you have the skills to protect yourself and survive,” she reminded the girl. “And you do.”

Ariel nodded as she began to carefully cram as many marshmallows as possible onto her roasting stick. Kate took that as her cue to begin the other part of preparing the Smores. They had a “secret ingredient,” peanut butter, which she first spread in a thin layer on the crackers. She laid a square of chocolate in the center of half the crackers and waited patiently while Ariel studiously watched the marshmallows, waiting for them to turn the perfect color.

Kate had pulled Ariel from school after the events of the past, homeschooling her with a special curriculum that also had lessons in outdoor survival, marksmanship, and self-defense. She wanted her daughter to gain knowledge and learn skills that empowered her and gave her more confidence. They had taken many courses together as part of the homeschool experience Kate had designed. As a result, they’d both become interested in preparedness over the past three years.

It was a somewhat unconventional education: Kate wanted her daughter to learn practical skills, so they had paired foraging in with botany, animal poop with biology, and canning with science. Physical education was the long, weekend hikes and the Krav Maga classes they took every Tuesday and Thursday. They were both motivated students and thoroughly enjoyed the physical challenge. Some of the moves had become second nature almost immediately, and Kate felt confident that Ariel had at least some of the tools she needed to keep herself safe, even if she wasn’t around to protect her every second of the day. As well, she knew that her girl would ace any standardized test given to her by the local school board. She was intelligent, well-read, and self-sufficient.

Kate was proud of how far she’d come. Actually, she was proud of how far they’d both come, from being timid and traumatized to competent and skilled. Though, she mused, she had probably bought their therapist a new car over the past years.

It had been worth every penny.

“Mom?” said Ariel tentatively as she placed a hot marshmallow on each block of chocolate, then sandwiched it all together with another peanut-butter-coated cracker to top it. “Do you think I could go back to regular school in September?”

The two had been nearly inseparable for three years now, and she knew it was time to let go a little.

“We can discuss that,” agreed Kate casually, even though every instinct screamed, “No, no, no!” inside her head.

“I just want to be able to hang out with my friends and be normal again,” said Ariel.

It was time, and they both knew it.

“When we get back, we’ll see about getting you registered,” Kate told her, faking good cheer with a broad smile.

But she wasn’t fooling her daughter. “It’ll be okay, Mom.” She laid a gentle hand on her mother’s forearm and gazed at her sincerely. “All of that bad stuff is over.”

Kate hoped that her daughter was right, but she wasn’t sure if she’d ever feel completely safe again.

They ate gooey, delicious Smores and soon had peanut butter, chocolate, and marshmallows smeared all over their faces. Laughing at how silly they looked, they gathered up all the trash from dinner. Kate threw in some sand from the nearby bucket and put the top onto the fire pit to smother the fire for the night.

When they got inside, the refrigerator door was open. “Ariel, you’ve got to shut the fridge all the way or our food will spoil.”

“I did shut it all the way, I’m positive,” Ariel replied, defensively.

“I guess it opened itself,” Kate shrugged. The fridge was very old, and perhaps it was losing its ability to seal properly. She pulled a dining room chair with chipped green paint in front of the fridge to hold it shut and decided she’d deal with fixing it, if necessary, tomorrow.

It had been a long day and both of them were struggling to keep their eyes open as they washed their roasting forks and put away their now-clean dishes.

“Night, Mom,” Ariel said, giving her mother a hug that lasted just a wee bit longer than the usual good-night hug. “I love you.”

Kate squeezed back. “I love you too, sweetie. Sleep well.”

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About Daisy

Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, adventure-seeking, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites.  1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty; 2)  The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived; and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. Her work is widely republished across alternative media and she has appeared in many interviews.

Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books, 12 self-published books, and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses at SelfRelianceand Survival.com You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.